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Description: Journey to Castle Hohenwerfen
Treating: This is Jakob Söderbaum's unabrished travel report of his visit to Werfen and Burg Hohenwerfen in Austria, 1998.
Author: Jakob Söderbaum
Announced: August 1999
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I spent the Autumn 1998 in Vienna, Austria, working at the local Volvo Truck
office there. As this would be a very lonely period, I decided to see as
much of the country as I could. And since the castle of Hohenwerfen - where
"Where Eagles Dare" was filmed - is situated just south of Salzburg, I
decided to go there on one of my sightseeing-trips...
It was a beautiful Saturday in October 1998. The sun was shining, the birds
were singing and you could feel Autumn was around the corner. What a perfect
day I'd picked for this adventure!
The thrill began already at the Salzburg railway station. Immediately when
I sat down in the train, I felt I'd just travelled some 50 years back in
time! The green and brown coupé with seats I'd only seen in old movies really
opened up my mind - this is how it was by the time the action in "Where Eagles
Dare" took place! During the 30 minutes I sat on the train, I got used to the
era - the ancient villages and alpes passing by the window proved I really
had travelled back in time. But I sat like on needles. My mind hadn't
gotten used to the Bavarian accents yet, and I was afraid to miss the station,
when called up in the speakers. But, asking the girls in front of me if I'd
heard it right, they confirmed that the next station would be it: Werfen.
Hometown of many a myth and legend - and of my all-time favorite movie
"Where Eagles Dare".
Arriving in Werfen
Getting off the train at the Werfen railway station, I felt like a pilgrim on
his way to Mekka. But a lonely pilgrim - I found it strange that I was the
only one to stop here - this place should be packed with tourists, I'd
imagined - but there weren't a single sould to be seen! Still with my mind in
the train, where I'd been talking to three fairly attractive Austrian girls,
I walked a few steps to get past the train. When I'd passed, I lifted my head
and breathed in the wonderful fresh air - the air of mountains and woods and
AUTUMN at its best. When I opened my eyes again, I stood face to face with the
magnificent and all-genuine Schloß Adler! Or Burg Hohenwerfen, as its real
name is. All the old memories of this movie came back to me in an instant, and
I didn't awake from the spell untill my neck began to ache. Now I knew what
Smith and Schaffer felt when they first encountered the castle from the "woods
due west of castle" - it is really a mighty sight! I just had to pick up my
camera and save this moment for posterity.
I crossed the railroad and began to walk in the direction of the few houses I
saw straight ahead of me, not realizing untill later that I'd just walked
the bridge where our heroes almost get caught in an ID-controll in the movie.
When I reached the houses, I saw there was some kind of a bus station not far
away. Hopefully there would be a site map, where I could find my 'Gasthof'
(= Inn). And I did. But I didn't understand where it would be, so I had to ask
for the way to it. "Over that bridge (pointing), and up the hill, it's that
house you see right up there", a friendly citizen told me. Wow, I thought.
That's quite a walk. Just then, I spotted a bus crawling up the slope. I was
surprised it didn't tip backwards, that steep was it!
Tough slopes
Well up at the Zaisman Gasthof, I was nearly bathing in sweat. I felt like a
mountain climber without equipment, and with two heavy suitcases to carry.
Which, in fact, I was. I had to sit down and relax for a few minutes before
I could ask the mistress for my room.
When I came to the room, I glanced at my watch. It was twenty minutes to two. I
felt a bit stressed. I knew the round trips at the castle went every hour,
and three o'clock there would be a falcon-show. So the trip two o'clock would
probably be my only chance. I wolfed down the (at this point very sweaty)
cheese and ham baguette I'd bought in the morning, together with a Sprite
supercan. Then I had to leave immediately. I ran down the 200 m slope - not
as much because of the short time-range as the fact that this was the only
way to get down if I didn't want to roll. I could feel my lunch
swelling in my stomach, but there was no way to stop running before I came
down to the bridge. Now I had to search for the way up to the castle.
What I found wasn't very encouraging: a very steep and narrow path through
the forrest turned out to be the way up. It was tough, but after a while I
reached a paved road, leading the last 50 metres up to the entrance (all in
all, I think it was about 400 metres of walk). It made the path in the forrest
look like... well, a walk in the park! I experienced it was so steep I could
almost lick the ground without touching it with my hands (which, of course,
was pure imagination - but the angle of inclination was surely about 20
degrees)! I didn't make it to the entrance. I had to take a break in my
climbing on a very strategically well-placed park bench, a few metres from
the entrance. I probably sat there for 10 minutes, just breathing.
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